Halo: Raptors
by Hellstorm88
Summary: In the wake of the Great Schism an ambitious clan of Kig-yar train a new generation of warrior. Having known nothing but training, they face an uncertain future. \\ Totally original storyline, no attachment to existing threads or characters. Falls within an AU that may get further stories if there is inspiration.


Prologue

12-03-2552  
Akivau, Tau Psi Kappa system

"How long will this take?"  
A slender figure stirred from its work over holographic screens, turning toward the speaker. "Clan-mistress Aki, such a pleasure to see my gracious benefactor. How may I help you?" He asked in a resonant rasp.  
"Answer my question!" Was the shrill reply as she stepped menacingly into the room. Her mottled brown feathers flared as the T'vaoan continued, "I grow impatient of your pandering, Mir."  
Mir huffed and turned back to his helical holograms. "This is not as simple as you think," he said, "I will need at least three more months to complete the sequences. After that, five months best estimate on incubation and a minimum of five years to physical maturity."  
"Make it faster!" the clan-mistress screeched, "With the Covenant in tatters and Humanity spreading, we need to secure the future of my clan. Your work will be needed sooner than that!"  
"I can not," he hissed with quills flared, "I can not even guarantee the current models' lifespans at the current level of accelerated growth! I warned you this project would take decades to reach maturity."  
Screeching in fury, Aki stalked her way out of the lab. Snorting in derision Mir returned to his work. Jaw clenched he pushed aside his irritation at his sponsor. What was so vexing when she was the one that was funding his work, the future of his species?

* * *

CH01: Raptors' Rearing

08-08-2557  
Akivau, Tau Psi Kappa system

A den carved into the rocky wall of an asteroid came to life with cold blue light, revealing a barren room with a padded nest across from the door. Flanking the nest was a rack of wooden armor and a humanoid sparring dummy hugging the curved walls. An overly large Ruutian with brown and green scales leapt up from the nest, going through a series of stretches and calisthenics.  
Several minutes of exercise later the wooden armor was donned and the Kig-yar began beating the wooden dummy with a series of hand to hand forms. He relentlessly battered the target until his breath began to grow short.  
Still wearing the wooden armor the Ruutian leapt to the door and placed his hand upon a scanner. It lit up with a purple outline and the door slid into the wall. Stepping into a circular room with a simple table and dispensers upon the far wall, the door latched behind him automatically. No time was wasted as he walked directly to a dispenser and gathered a shallow dish filled with vegetables and meat.  
He laid his dish on the table and sat, as two doors adjacent to his opened, revealing an orange feathered T'vaoan and a grey scaled Ibie'shan. "Still the best," he cawed.  
"Don't fool yourself Rut, you know I am faster," the T'vaoan replied. She leapt neatly across the room to the dispenser, demonstrating her point.  
The Ibie'shan chortled as he walked around the table saying, "Calm down T'vo, we know how fast you are."  
Rut shook his head. "Thanks Ibe, but you know it won't help," he said. He looked down at his plate and picked up one of the lumpy grey tubers out of the khaki leaves of the vegetable mix, biting into it with a grimace.  
Grabbing their dishes T'vo and Ibe sat down around to eat as well. T'vo eyed the mix with disgust, and her feathers ruffled at Rut digging into his. "How you gizzard these weeds," she said, "I will never know." Instead she picked up a morsel of cyan meat and snapped it into her mouth.  
Ibe gave her a look, picking up a tuber of his own, with thin strands of the tan leafs wrapped around it. "We eat it because we need to. It has properties we need to develop physically," he said. Rut crowed out a laugh, saying, "I would rather not finish my meal with a bitter taste in my mouth, and save the best to be treat." At that he ate his last morsel of vegetables and began chewing on the tender meat on his dish.  
T'vo seemed to have conceded the point because she began scarfing down her own vegetables. The remainder of the meal was filled with excited whispers between them as they imagined what the future would hold.

After their meal, they returned their dishes to the dispenser and made their way down a hall, splitting up to meet with their instructors. Nearly five years of the routine made the journey mindlessly swift, and Rut entered his training chamber unfocused. He was momentarily taken aback when his instructor, a tan Ruutian named Ro grunted at him, and his eyes rose to meet his physician Mir Dar's.  
Rut had known the emaciated brown Ibie'shan all his life, and conversing with him as he examined Rut's body was a comfortable routine. He had wondered at this routine when he was young, but the last two years had demonstrated the need through rapid growth. Whenever he asked about their differences Mir would simply answer that they 'Will be the future of our species.' It was a response they did not know what to make of beyond that it inflated T'vo's ego further.  
"How are you feeling today Rut?" Mir asked as he began using his tools.  
"Excited Sir," was Rut's reply.  
"Care to elaborate?" he queried as he finished measurements and moved to vitals.  
"Our graduation Sir. Becoming a warrior with the Aki name," Rut answered. Mir gave him a strange look, his quills flattened, before stepping back and sighing. "Final height is two hundred and fifty eight centimeters, final weight of one hundred and thirty five kilograms. Within line of the last three measurements," he said. "I do believe you to be ready Rut."  
With a clap of his quills, Mir began putting his instruments away and jotting notes on his data-pad. "Thank you for your time Ro," he squawked, "I look forward to seeing him in battle." With a nod to the two, Mir turned from the room and made his way down the hall.  
As the door slid shut Ro called Rut to task, presenting test after test before him. Literacy, Science, Strategy, Tactics, and various primers on the known species of the Milky Way. He fell into the tests with ease borne of familiarity, his mind wandering as he worked.  
Rut wondered at the world outside of his training, what it would be like to meet someone he hadn't known all his life. Would they accept a giant among them? Stand by him in battle? It was an unvoiced fear that haunted the back of his mind, a specter of rejection.  
These thoughts churned as he finished the series of exams, moving on to tactical scenarios. Ro always presented it as a puzzle, a test to his ability to process information and make sound decisions. The sequence today was varied, from urban combat against superior numbers, furious boarding actions, and solo combat. Ro was uncompromising, countering his every strategy and punishing the slightest mistake with brutal consequences.  
For hours Rut struggled to answer the scenarios to Ro's satisfaction. He was strained by the end of the training period, unable to finish the last challenge presented- surrounded and outnumbered against his own kind. Ro waved him off with a sigh, and Rut left the room in silence.

Rut and the others ate their midday meal in silence, Ibe visibly distressed with his quills fitfully shivering. T'vo appeared bored, poking at the tubers she hated so as she slowly chewed on a hunk of meat. They finished their meal and rose as one without a word, walking down the hall to a large set of double doors.  
The chamber beyond those doors yawned, its massive dimensions barely lit. The ceiling quickly vaulted to several dozen meters, stretching back for over a kilometer. The area around the door was devoted to three firing lanes and an extensive armory. Beyond was a twisting warren of alleys, structures, and walkways of human and covenant make alike.  
Rut noticed their three instructors as they walked to the firing range. They stoically moved through their firing exercises, draining magazine after battery as they proved their competence with almost every weapon known to the Galaxy. As they finished their field stripping of their last weapon, they turned to their instructors and stood at attention.

Their instructors- Aru, a tan Ruutian; Et, the brown feathered T'vaoan, and the olive Ibie'shan Tir- examined their charges with critical eyes. Et stepped forwards and swept her eyes over the three. "Well done," she said, "Your mastery of ranged combat has been demonstrated sufficiently. Now the three of you shall spar, testing your ability to attack and defend in close quarters."  
Aru nodded as he added, "The three of you have become remarkable warriors. I anticipate tomorrow's final test with split quills."  
Scratching their heads at the elderly Aru's odd mannerisms, Rut and the others turned back to the armory and looked over the wooden sparring gear. Rut himself grabbed a sword, T'vo a hammer, and Ibe a simple staff. The three spread out in a circle and activated the shields built into their training armor.

T'vo was the first to move leaping into action towards Rut with her hammer at a low ready. Rut dove forward to slide on his shield, bringing the sword up to catch her hammer's haft in the tines. T'vo flipped over him keeping her footing as well as the grip on her hammer with one hand. She jerked the handle towards herself, twisting her grip to clip Rut with the head of the hammer. Rut pushed off with his sword, bringing his shield up to block a lunge from Ibe.  
On his feet, Rut pulled his sword off the hammer and tried a backhand slash towards Ibe in the same motion. Wood met plasma as Ibe parried with his shield, and the two leapt back as T'vo's hammer crashed down where Rut had been a moment before.  
Rut leapt forward again, desperately bringing his sword down in an arc towards T'vo's side. Ibe matched him using his staff as a spear, attempting to pinch T'vo between them. T'vo neatly parried the two strikes with her arm shields, and swung her hammer down at Ibe.  
Ibe grunted as the hammer caught him in the shoulder and slammed him to the ground. T'vo let out a shrill screech of victory, pulling her hammer back at the ready. Rut capitalized on her momentary distraction and slid behind her with a low sweep. His sword caught her in the fold of her upper knee, and with a vicious jerk he flipped her to the ground.  
Rut stepped back and knelt as T'vo's hammer clattered along the ground. T'vo and Ibe climbed to their feet as their instructors walked forward. Et held a severe expression in her eyes and quills as she watched T'vo. Aru and Tir seemed amused as she began to berate T'vo for her reckless fighting.

Behind them Mir and Mistress Aki entered the room, unnoticed until Mistress Aki began to speak. "Congratulations," she said with her eyes on Rut, "you have indeed fought well." As she had undivided attention she looked them over. "Tomorrow is your final test. The three of you will make your way through the combat maze in this chamber while eliminating all opposition." Her eyes rested upon Ibe and Et as she said, "Let us see if you have been worth all of this effort."  
Having made her announcement, the Clan-mistress turned and stalked from the room. "Never mind her," said Mir, "She has been impatient these last five years, unwilling to wait for results." Mir began pacing and scratching at raw quills. "You three are ambitious, an answer to the demons of Humanity... " He paused, looking them over again. "I believe we have succeeded, but tomorrow you will have to prove it to the Clan-mistress. After your morning meal, meet me in my laboratory. There is something I'd like to give all of you."  
With a curt nod Mir turned to their instructors, leaving the three to return their gear with bemused expressions. Rut and the others made for the door, as Aru started talking to Mir animatedly. Rut was looking forward to his evening meal as the door closed behind them, and he suddenly found himself staring at the ceiling with fleeting breath. T'vo's face filled his vision with teeth bared and feathers extended.  
"How dare you embarrass me on the last day?" she screeched, gripping him just under the shoulders.  
Rut opened his mouth to reply, muscles coiling and quills pressing into the deck plates as Ibe pulled her off. "You wounded me far more than he did your pride, sister," Ibe said. "It was only a test, a way for us to explore our strengths and weaknesses. It is a luxury we will not have after tomorrow."  
T'vo hissed indignantly, but smoothed her feathers and helped Rut up. The rest of the walk back and the meal was tense silence. Ibe bid them all goodnight as they each returned to their dens.

Stripped of his armor and groomed Rut lay within his nest, staring into the darkness. As sleep gripped him he wondered of the future and the clan he was to meet.

* * *

 **AN:** So, this is a little idea I had a ways back. Don't forget to drop a review and let me know what you think. Work on these will be slow, but I hope that the quality makes it worth the wait.


End file.
